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Here are some tips I've offered to other mums in their effort to wean their children off the bottle.

Many children will breastfeed until they are 2 1/2 or 3. I've found that most child-led weaning takes place around this age. What this often means is that children have a need to cuddle and suck into their 3's. Usually they are getting all the nutrients they need from their food, green smoothies and goat milk or cow milk that they take from a cup. It's the sucking and closeness that they want before bed and when they wake up in the morning.

So I would suggest that you only give your daughter a bottle when you are holding her. If she doesn't want to be held, then she doesn't get the bottle. This would be a similar situation to a breastfeeding relationship. If the child gets off the mother's lap, she doesn't get to take the breast with her and she knows the only time she can suck is when she's on mum's lap.

You can also offer your daughter a cup before she has her meal. If you're offering her a cup of milk, she may drink more milk and eat less food this way, which isn't the best. So you can always try giving her her food first, and then offering a cup later.

Green smoothies can be considered food and you could offer this at meal time. You may also find that because your daughter is used to sucking, that she may prefer a straw. 3 year olds do very well with straws and there are even children's cups you can get that come with a straw. This might be a good first transition from bottle to cup. Bottle nipple, to straw (both sucking action) to sippy cup to cup. Or bottle nipple to sippy cup (both sucking action) to cup. Or, as many mums do, just bottle nipple to cup.

At 3 years of age your daughter should handle a cup without too much trouble. Just don't fill the cup very much and let her start to experiment with it (might want to try water first).

Have you tried taking the bottle away yet? If so, did you replace it with anything? What was her reaction? Replacing it with offering to cuddle and read a book might help.